Ikkis

Set against the turbulent dawn of the 1970s, Ikkis opens on the formative years of Arun Khetrapal (Agastya Nanda), a young army officer of exceptional promise undergoing rigorous training to command a tank regiment. Distinguished early for his leadership, Arun appears poised for a life defined by purpose and quiet fulfilment. Love, too, smiles upon him in the form of Kiran (Simar Bhatia), and the future stretches before him, radiant with possibility. History, however, is rarely so benevolent. The outbreak of the 1971 war with Pakistan violently disrupts this fragile equilibrium, thrusting Arun—just twenty-one—into the crucible where youth, duty, and destiny irrevocably converge.

Ikkis is primarily about a young man who fought the 1971 India-Pakistan war and attained martyrdom. In a typical Hindi war film, we would have shown his life from childhood or teenage years to him joining the army, fighting for the nation and ultimately sacrificing his life for the country. But Ikkis isn’t a typical war film by any means. Along with portraying the martyrdom of the young man, the film gives equal importance at giving an anti-war message through the track of Dharmendra and Jaideep Ahlawat. It says loudly without saying much – ultimately there are humans on both sides of the border who die during a war. And the film achieves this even while showing the bravery of a young martyr.

I found myself tearing up a few times while watching Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis. It’s not because of the film alone, which is based on the military service of India’s youngest Paramvir Chakra awardee, Second Lt Arun Khetarpal – who died during the 1971 Indo-Pak war. It had more to do with the Bollywood war film – a genre that has assumed the responsibility to rile up obvious jingoistic sentiments, thinking it’s the only way to make itself a successful enterprise. Raghavan is too much of a ‘thinking’ and a self-assured filmmaker to give into the temptations of the box office. We’ve also seen dozens of these idols exhibit feet of clay in the last decade.

Sriram Raghavan’s Ikkis stands out as an exceptional film and ranks among the finest war films produced in our country. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable true story of India’s youngest Param Vir Chakra recipient, Second Lieutenant Arun Khetrapal, Raghavan has skillfully created a narrative that encourages reflection, emotional engagement, empathy, and makes you admire the craft of film making that takes the road less travelled.

When Arun Khetarpal (Agastya Nanda) receives a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, filmmaker Sriram Raghavan has already hinted to the audience how he will be tackling the heroics of the Param Vir Chakra-awardee protagonist. He’s essentially telling you to keep the hankies ready. Ikkis isn’t a straightforward biopic of a young, enthusiastic army officer who dreams of fighting and beating the foe. When Khetarpal brings his golf clubs to the training camp and defiantly declares to his senior that he will put them to use in Lahore after victory, he gets a beating down: a war decides whether a fool is a braveheart or a braveheart is a fool. In his second on-screen outing, Nanda plays out Khetarpal’s innocence and righteousness well. Joining the Indian Army, he confidently tells his colleagues that his aspiration is to sacrifice his life.

Can a film on a war hero shun jingoism? Can a film based on the 1971 war avoid thriving on an anti-Pakistan sentiment? In times when ‘Dhurandhar’ is roaring at the box office, can it dare to go in the opposite direction? Can there be a war movie that instead of exacerbating conflicts is rather calming? The answer to all these questions is a resounding ‘yes’. National Award-winning director Sriram Raghavan (for ‘Andhadhun’) not only reinvents himself by moving to a genre he is not quite known for, but also shows what a biopic and a war movie should entail.

Ikkis is not your typical Sriram Raghavan film, yet you can still find the master storyteller’s signature style throughout the film. Raghavan, who is known for his mystery thrillers and neo-noir films, moves out of genre to make a war drama based on a real-life incident. The result is a beautiful film that not only highlights the valour of Second Lieutenant Arun Kehtarpal during a crucial operation at the fag end of the Indo-Pak war in 1971, but also goes beyond the conversation of war and talks of humanity. The film, starring Dharmendra, Jaideep Ahlawat and Agastya Nanda, revisits a time when hatred was a common emotion between Indian and Pakistan but Raghavan, in his own way, talks about the futility of war and highlights the human side of soldiers on both sides of the border.

One side wins a battle, but both sides lose in a war. Hindi films of late, committed to depicting historical warfare, have been relaying stories of battles. Neatly structured narratives keep pitting men — and nations — against each other as hyperstylised filmmaking and hypermasculine action nourish an appetite to roar for one and ridicule the other. Bravery in these tales is distinct and calibrated, above moral probing and beyond mortal restraint. In his war drama, Ikkis, filmmaker Sriram Raghavan looks in the eyes of onlookers, trained to bay for blood, and offers them water.